News Highlights:
- Palestinians mourn the 11 people killed in Israeli air raids, and Arab analysts believe the raids make a mockery of the Annapolis conference.
- Donors pledge $7 billion for the Palestinians in Paris, although previous pledges have fallen far short of money delivered.
- Israeli Foreign Minister working to avoid any international criticism over its increased settlement expansion, most recently in Har Homa.
- Most Arab foreign ministers attend the Paris conference and want a statement calling for Israel to remove roadblocks and stop settlement construction.
- Mahmoud Abbas says he would agree to the deployment of an international force in Palestine, after it was suggested at the Paris conference.
- Israel signs free trade agreement with the South American trade bloc, Mercosur.
Feature:
The feature was a live interview with Mazin Qumsiyeh www.qumsiyeh.org, a Palestinian American professor, scientist and activist. Mazin spoke about the current political developments and the futility of the recent conferences at Annapolis and Paris, which had avoided all the main issues. Mazin also talked about his new book, Sharing the Land of Canaan. He concluded by detailing the situation on the ground in the Bethlehem area, where he was born and visits often, and told the story of his elderly mother who is now unable to visit a church in Jerusalem where she annually used to light a candle after Mazin survived a childhood illness.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of a Dec. 15th, 2007 Washington Post story about how students at the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza could no longer use their hearing aids because the Israeli siege bans all batteries from entering the Gaza Strip.
Here is an audio file of this show: